


Four ways Kanan found out that Hera could sing

by Xenadd



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: AU explorations, Drabble, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 04:03:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4248600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xenadd/pseuds/Xenadd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hera sings. She sings. All this time, and Kanan never knew. She had hummed, in frustration or absentmindedly or chasing a nightmare. Singing was an entirely new development. </p><p>Four unconnected explorations of how Kanan found that Hera could sing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four ways Kanan found out that Hera could sing

**1.**

It was like a flood had been let loose in Hera; since the arrival of their daughter - and since the sheer _panic_ and worry and ohfuckohfuckohfuck had worn off - Kanan learned something new about his captain every day. Stories she had never shared before, told in a lilting whisper to the tiny bundle strapped to her chest as she finalised jump points. All of her favourite little things on Ryloth, snatches of happy memories that had been hidden for so long (save the rest for later, introduce her to the good before raising the bad). Hera’s r’s  rolling that little more, her vowels elongating as her native accent overrode her acquired outer rim accent.

Never moreso than when she sang. _Hera sings_. She _sings_. All this time, and Kanan never knew. She had hummed, in frustration or absentmindedly or chasing a nightmare. Singing was an entirely new development. Smoky and low, the ryl words pouring out and wrapping around him, filling the cockpit with specters of a lost world.

Kanan held her extra close that night, legs around his waist as they sat on their bunk. Determinedly but gently tickling her neck with his beard as he whispered for her to sing again, _just for him._ She will, but only if he’s the one to get up and see to the child when she wakes up in the night.

 

**2.**

The intel had gotten to them too late, the camp already under attack as they sat, idly, waiting for the coordinates to be confirmed. Another blow to the straggling remnants of Ryloth, free no longer.

As the crew picked through the smouldering remains, a tearing gasping breath came from under the shredded remains of a crate. Hera scrabbled desperately, silently to reveal a Twi’lek woman, more ash than flesh. Unknown to her, but familiar _mother cousin aunt_.Taking care to avoid the charred flesh, Hera took the dying woman’s head in her lap. Too far gone, there was nothing that could be done. Gently stroking the base of her lekku as the crew watched on, Hera began to hum softly, faltering notes soon forming words soothing and sweet. A living piece of home in an alien place of death; she sang a song passed on by her mother and by her mother.

Before the second verse was done, the woman let out a final sigh. Gone.

That night, Kanan found Hera in the cockpit. Why should she sleep when there was so much work to be done? Together they sat in silence for the longest time, staring. Into the void of space, the silence deafening. Until, so low he’s not sure he’s sensing it or hearing it, she started to sing. The words sweeping and soothing, though he did not entirely understand it. When she sang her last, Hera squeezed Kanan’s hand and returned to sitting in comfortable, contemplative silence. Until the morning yells came from Zeb and Ezra’s room.

 

**3.**

Ripped from dreams of gunfire and death and _run_ , Kanan woke up to hands gently carding through his hair and a lullaby in his ear. _It was just a nightmare, he’s fine, everyone’s fine, Master Billaba -_ but no. The barely audible words were unknown to him; not basic - Ryl? Green hands soothing his aching head instead of brown.

He was lying face down on the sofa in the Ghost’s lounge. He didn’t remember getting there; he did remember a desperate need to drown the past. It didn’t work. It never worked. Hera, sitting on the floor next to him, met his eye with an understanding smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Her fingers faltered but she didn’t drop a note, continuing her song until he drifted back to an uneasy sleep.

They never spoke of the incident, but that was the last time Kanan passed out in a drunken stupour. (He would have taken Hera’s singing as a substitute to keep the nightmares at bay, but that probably would have been a breach of their agreement.)

(She sang for him again several years later.)

 

**4.**

Peace and quiet reigned at last on the Ghost. Kanan had swept the rest of crew off to run errands, buy supplies _._ Hera had begged off, citing repairs that urgently needed her attention. Truthfully, she need to be _alone_. She loved her crew - her family - but there were times that she missed when the ship was _her ship_.

The tanks were full, water was hot and no squabbling queue to use the ‘fresher. She was going to indulge and luxuriate in a shower that lasted longer than five minutes. Stepping into the deliciously scalding water, it wasn’t long before the tension was seeping out of her bones and a [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFtGfyruroU) bubbling out of her lungs. Strong and wilful, the Ryl rolling from the bottom of her belly as she let loose as she hadn’t let herself in _so long_ , reverberating through the fresher.

Skin beginning to wrinkle and  having sung through all of the loudest and most defiant songs that she could think of, she turned the cooling water off and stepped out of the stall. She must have nearly gone through the entire tank. Oops. Still humming - a bawdy cantina number that her father had once caught her singing and _no she definitely didn’t know where she heard it **or** what it means honestly daddy_ \- she moved to wrap a towel around herself. Brushing water from the length of her lekku, and coming face to face with a broadly grinning Jedi leaning against the ‘fresher door.

Before he could say whatever _witty_ remark he had ready, she flung the damp towel at his face and retreated back into the shower stall, turning the water back on. Daring him to follow her into the cool water.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr.


End file.
